ROSEMARY'S BABY (FILM)

'''Rosemary's Baby''' is an Academy Award-winning 1968 horror film directed by Roman Polanski and starring Mia Farrow. The film is based on the Ira Levin novel of the same name. ''Rosemary's Baby'' was Robert Evans' first big hit while running Paramount Pictures. He was closely involved in the production, and numerous times had to deal with Mia Farrow's precarious relationship with then-husband Frank Sinatra. Farrow and Sinatra divorced soon after the film was completed. Ruth Gordon won the 1968 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role as the nosy neighbor Minnie Castevet.
A sequel titled ''Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby'' aired as a made-for-TV movie in 1976 starring Patty Duke as Rosemary Woodhouse, and Ruth Gordon reprising her role of Minnie Castevet.

Contents

Plot summary

Casting

References in popular culture

Trivia

References

External links

Plot summary

The story follows Rosemary Woodhouse, a somewhat naïve young woman, and her husband Guy, an aspiring actor, after moving into a New York City apartment next door to enthusiastic, oversolicitous neighbors. The couple want to have a baby; on the night they plan to try to conceive, she has dizzy spells and passes out, experiencing a dream or vision that she is being raped by a demonic presence (see incubus).
A few weeks later, she finds out that she is pregnant. Guy lands a small but noticeable part in a play when the man who was originally cast goes suddenly and inexplicably blind. For the first three months of her pregnancy, Rosemary suffers agonizing abdominal pains, loses weight instead of gaining it, and craves meats such as "blue" steak (barely seared on both sides), and raw chicken liver.
Guy is cast in a sitcom that garners him even more attention, and a number of film studios are eager to sign him up. Following clues left to her by an older friend, who goes into a coma and dies before revealing the whole story, Rosemary comes to suspect that her neighbors are part of a Satanic cult with designs on her as-yet-unborn child, and that her husband is working with them in exchange for his career advances.
An increasingly disturbed and unstable Rosemary becomes convinced that her neighbors plan to use her child as a sacrifice to Satan and the efforts of her husband and neighbors to dissuade her from this idea are in vain. At the end of the movie, it is revealed that Rosemary was almost exactly right when Minnie and Roman tell her the child is the son of Satan. Rosemary's shock is short-lived, however, as her mothering instinct towards her son is stronger than her fear of Satan.

Casting

★ Polański originally wanted Robert Redford to play Guy, but Redford was currently filming ''Downhill Racer'' (1969). Jack Nicholson had also been briefly considered for the role of Guy. Polański originally offered the role of Guy to Warren Beatty, but he turned it down saying, "it wasn't big enough." Laurence Harvey had also begged Paramount to consider himself, while other names like Richard Chamberlain, Robert Wagner and James Fox were thrown around as well [1]. Burt Reynolds also reportedly turned down the role of Guy [2].

★ It has been rumored that Anton LaVey appears in the film as Satan and was an unofficial technical advisor [3]. According to some sources, this rumor originated when it was discovered that actress Sharon Tate, who was later murdered by the Manson Family, was involved in the film's production [4]. LaVey, however, did not play the role of Satan during the rape scene of Rosemary's Baby (in fact it was actor Clay Tanner) and no technical advisor was used.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

★ Jane Fonda was offered the role of Rosemary but turned it down to film ''Barbarella'' (1968) in Europe. Tuesday Weld was second choice (and Polański's preference) but refused to test for the role [5].

References in popular culture

★ Today Is the Day uses a (or several) sample(s) from this movie near the end of the song "Never Answer The Phone" off the album "Sadness Will Prevail"

★ The theme song to the film is covered by the band Fantomas in their album "Directors Cut"

★ The song Evil by Interpol pays homage to the film ("Rosemary/Heaven restores you in life...").

★ Hardcore band Charles Bronson uses several sound clips from the film.

★ Laibach's 1992 Album "Kapital" samples the film on two tracks: "Kinderreich" (sampling Mia Farrow's vocals from the film's theme song) and "Sponsored By Mars" (sampling Maurice Evan's shouts of "Typhoon! Typhoon!" from the scene where Rosemary dreams she is aboard a ship.)

★ Other musical references to the film are by Deep Purple on "Why didn't Rosemary?", by Frumious Bandersnatch on "Rosemary's Baby" and by Samsas Traum on "Kamikaze!".

★ In the action movie-spoofing film, Last Action Hero, when Jack Slater and Danny are about to be killed by Benedict on the rooftop of a cinema, he mentions a christening for Rosemary's Baby as one of the things he can do with the magic ticket he stole from Danny.

★ Outkast references Rosemary's Baby in the song Git Up, Git Out on their 1994 album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik: "I used to hang out with my daddy's brothers, I call them my uncles. They taught me how to smoke herb, I followed them when they ran numbers. So in a sense I was Rosemary's baby".

★ Chicago electronic duo Microfilm released their song 'What Have You Done to Its Eyes?' on their 2007 debut album ''After Dark''; the song lyrics are inspired by the film and Mia Farrow's personal life at the time; the title is a reference to Rosemary's famous line in the final scene of the film; samples of an interview with Ms. Farrow from that time period can be heard in the song.

Trivia

★ In the movie, Rosemary meets a neighbor, Terry Gionoffrio, in the laundry room. She stares at her and then apologizes saying, "I thought you were Victoria Vetri, the actress." Terry responds by saying, "a lot of people think I'm Victoria, but I don't see the resemblance." In fact, the actress who played Terry is Victoria Vetri (credited as Angela Dorian), the actress and 1968 Playmate of the Year. This scene is described as "one of the in-jokes of the movie" [6].

★ Tony Curtis played the voice part of Don Baumgard, when Rosemary calls him on the phone to inquire about his condition. Reportedly, Mia Farrow did not know that the actor on the phone was her good friend Tony Curtis. [7]. Polański wanted it to be kept secret from her so as to enhance the impression in the scene of Rosemary's confusion. In the scene, Mia Farrow truly shows confusion, as she tries to recall why the voice on the phone sounds so familiar.

★ Some make comparisons of the film's Satanic cult elements to the true-life torture and murder of Sharon Tate (Polański's wife) by the Charles Manson cult followers, just one year after the movie's release. [8] Tate, who was pregnant at the time of her murder, was two weeks away from her due date.

★ Maurice Evans played Rosemary's concerned friend "Hutch" who is hexed and murdered by the cult. Evans played Samantha's warlock father on the TV sitcom ''Bewitched''. The sitcom would make several coy references in 1968-1969 to ''Rosemary's Baby'' as a new movie about witches "which show us as quite evil". [9].


★ Outside shots of the movie's Bramford apartment building were in fact The Dakota, the future home of Mia Farrow's friend John Lennon, and his wife and son, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon. Coincidentally, the Manson Family named their murder spree "Helter Skelter," after the song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

★ The Beatles song "Dear Prudence," which, like "Helter Skelter," was also a track on the Beatles' White Album, was written about actress Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence. Twelve years after the release of Rosemary's Baby, John Lennon was murdered outside The Dakota. The spot where Lennon was killed--the front entrance tunnel of the building--is shown in several shots.

★ There was a popular belief that Alfred Hitchcock was originally offered the chance to direct this movie. This has been deemed false. The director was never approached.

★ Mia Farrow performs the theme song to the film.

★ This film was #23 on Bravo's ''100 Scariest Movie Moments'' for its scene where Rosemary is raped by Satan.

★ Makes reference to popular stage actors such as Forbes Robertson, Helena Modjeska and Minnie Fiske.

References

1. "Imdb Entry Clay Tanner"
2. "The Church of Satan by Micheal Aquino p. 17"
3. "Imdb entry for Anton Lavey"
4. "Imdb Entry "Rosemary's Baby" ".
5. Castle, William "Step Right Up! I'm Gonna Scare the Pants off America"

External links

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